The tagline on the cover sez: "An all-new, all-different HELL for.. Green Arrow". All-new, all-different, unfortunately doesn't mean that This Writer has leftthe book. Green Arrow is still in HELL.
The basic and somewhat unbelievable premise is that 1/3 of Star City was blown up by Dr. Light and Merlyn, one year ago (issue 59). Being villains with superpowers and all, they used BOMBS, a standard crutch of this Writer. The Writer works in some recycled dialogue he heard during the Hurricane Katrina coverage, including a shot at the government. Here's the tough part to swallow: Star City has erected a massive wall to block off the damaged side of town. Apparently, they were able to build the wall in record time. ---Fuck, it's taken Denver 8 years and they STILL haven't finished the I-25/Santa Fe/ Broadway bridge. Green Arrow (who was apparently killed in issue 59) managed to drop by the bad side of town before disappearing for a year.
Oliver Queen is the newly elected mayor of Star City and is out to clean up the corruption from corporations and gangs. A non-descript group of suits in a board room meeting are upset. Brick, the former gang leader, is seen roughing up some thugs in the bad side of town. Green Arrow shoots him with some glue arrows and tells him to keep up the work, but don't kill anybody. So I guess Brick is working for Green Arrow?
Deathstroke also drops by and is apparently out for Ollie. Again, the Writer blows Deathstroke's dialogue and makes him seem out-of-character. Deathstroke says he'll kill someone and mail their head with a Post-It note stuck on it. Not something you'd expect from the educated and rather distinguished Slade Wilson.
We only see Green Arrow's new costume on the cover, but it appears to be a modification of the old Mike Grell outift-- with the hood and baggy pants.
I'm harsh on The Writer, but I have a constructive alternative for him: he should write for video games. Seriously. His dialogue and plots read like something an 8th grader would concoct. Everyone makes smart-ass remarks and wants to kick ass. No real emotion or character exploration... just cliche phrases and teenaged fan fiction.
I like Green Arrow, the character, but I'm really hating Green Arrow, the comic.
This past weekend I happened to read the past dozen or so issues of JLA. While reading the last few issues, I noticed how I really liked how they focused on GA and liked how they prtrayed him. The player, the hothead, the man striving for the group/dream. Even his idea FOR doing the mindwipe worked as he now has family to think about. I have always like the GA character. hell, back in the day (only two decades ago now), I always got a kick of the GA/GL team-ups and probably still have about a third of those issues at my parents place tucked away.
After reading what you jsut said about #60, I'm glad I haven't picked this book up in a while. (I think I stopped around #25 or something like that.)